Ex-Taliban fighters helping charities locate landmines they planted in Afghanistan
Former Taliban fighters are tracking down their own bombs and helping to remove them from Afghanistan’s roadsides.
Ex-Taliban members are working with local police and the Scottish Dumfriesshire-based charity Halo Trust to clear the country of dangerous landmines.
The improvised explosive devices (IEDs) were routinely laid by Taliban fights during two decades of war against an international coalition and the former Afghan government, with the devices still killing around unsuspecting 60 children a month.
Halo Trust staff recalled when a security guard escorting their team recognised his own landmine.
‘We were looking at it, sort of inspecting it, to see how we’d destroy it,’ said Callum Peebles, who was inspecting an IED underneath a main road near the town of Kandahar in November 2021.
‘While we were looking at it, the security guard from the escort said “Oh, that’s one that I laid”.
‘It was incredible.
‘He then proceeded to point at this nearby field and said “we laid them there, and over there and over there”.
‘For me that was one of these extraordinary moments where you think, wow it’s very helpful these people are here and there’s been no limitation on the information we’ve been able to gather.’
The Halo Trust has destroyed more than 800,000 landmines in Afghanistan since 1988 and now operates in 25 of the 34 provinces in the country with the Taliban’s permission.
Landmines continue to kill children
Demining work is now taking place with increased speed and urgency as fighting has died down and 1,200,000 square meters of Afghan land is still contaminated by mines and improvised explosive devices.
Over 1,400 people died from the exploding bombs between January 2022 and February 2024, with 86% of these victims being children.
Nine children were killed by a decades-old mine in April as they played with it in Ghazni province.
Callum Peebles, a programme manager for the Halo Trust, said: ‘Most Talibs that I’ve spoken to have explained that the fighting is over and now what they want to do is repair Afghanistan.
‘Putting aside all the political challenges and the terrible situation for women and girls, it’s clear that Halo’s work is welcome in Afghanistan and it’s remarkable how much has been possible since the takeover.’
IEDs were often planted around roads by Taliban fighters as the group targeted vehicles and personnel.
Human rights in Afghanistan under Taliban rule
Human rights organisations report that human rights in Afghanistan have ‘continued to deteriorate’ in the three years since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021.
According to Human Rights Watch, the Taliban has committed widespread human rights violations, particularly against women and girls.
Women and girls cannot access secondary and higher education and are unable to exercise other fundamental rights, including freedom of assembly, movement and work.
In August 2023, a United Nations report detailed at least 800 instances of extrajudicial killing, arbitrary arrests, and detentions, and over 144 cases of torture and brutal treatment.
Acute malnutrition is believed to be affecting more than 4 million people, including more than 840,000 pregnant and nursing women and over 3 million children.
While the Taliban government is not recognized by any country, the group has bagged several diplomatic victories in 2024.
Saudi Arabia announced the resumption of its diplomatic mission in the Afghan capital on December 22 and the Taliban claims that its diplomats are now in a dozen countries including China, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
Now, after Afghanistan dramatically took control of the country in August 2021, ex-Taliban personnel have provided detailed information to aid in demining work.
Mr Peebles added: ‘Quite uniquely, we’ve even been able to speak to the bomb-makers themselves.
‘We were able to have conversations with IED makers who would explain the logic of what they were laying, why they would lay a particular item, and where they would lay them.
‘We were able to get pretty unique and valuable information.’
Taliban landmines took the lives of hundreds of British soldiers in Afghanistan, and were the leading cause of death amongst UK forces from 2001 to 2014.
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